RTI law will protect tribal women’s rights: Naila Altaf

PESHAWAR: Women of the newly merged tribal districts were also keenly waiting for benefits of the reforms process and merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The tribal women are of the view that the Right to Information (RTI) law will not only ensure protection of their rights to a great extent, but it will also help in tackling corruption in funds specified for women.

Naila Altaf, representative of Tribal Youth Movement, an institution working for rights of tribal women, shared her views on benefits of the RTI law for women in an interview with TNN.

On 23 April, 2019, the KP government announced extension of RTI law to the merged districts under which the people will now have right to get information from the government and semi-government departments.

Naila Altaf is of the view that women will particularly get benefit from the RTI law in tribal districts. In the previous set-up, she said, if a girl wanted to join the Education Department as teacher, then she was not sure that merit will be followed or not.

“Most of the girls did not use to apply for teaching posts because they could not arrange the bribe of up to Rs500,000 for appointment as teacher. But now the situation has changed, and merit is being followed in appointments,” she said, adding: “Now the candidates don’t need anyone’s help for getting information, as they can directly approach the government institutions for information under the RTI law.”

The rights activist said the tribal women must be given awareness about the RTI laws and areas on which they can get information under this law. “Women will certainly get relief under this law. We can file a complaint against any department if we notice any malpractice,” she said.

Naila Altaf said students are often seen worried about the merit lists. She said the students previously had no idea where to confirm the authenticity of the merit lists. However, she said, now the RTI law has provided the student an option to get all the required information in this regard.

“I am fully confident that the tribal women will access the information and they will fully utilise the RTI law to get their rights,” she added.